China Oncology ›› 2023, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (1): 71-77.doi: 10.19401/j.cnki.1007-3639.2023.01.008

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress in construction of hypoxia-sensitive CAR-T cell for solid tumor therapy

XUE Ying1,2(), MAO Yunyu1,2, XU Jianqing1,2,3()   

  1. 1. Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200030, China
    2. Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Shanghai 201540, China
    3. Biotherapy Center, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200030, China
  • Received:2022-07-18 Revised:2022-10-27 Online:2023-01-30 Published:2023-02-13
  • Contact: XU Jianqing

Abstract:

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, as a kind of tumor immunotherapy, has made remarkable achievements for the treatment of hematological malignancy. Disappointingly, regarding solid tumors, CAR-T cells generally target tumor-associated antigens that are also widely expressed in normal tissues because of the lack of tumor specific antigen, resulting in on-target off-tumor effects, which may even endanger patients’ lives. Measures should be taken to overcome the off-target effects which severely limit the application of CAR-T cell therapy in solid tumors. A feasible strategy is to design hypoxia-sensitive CAR-T cells, which express CAR only in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Therefore, the redundant “accidental injury” can be avoided. In this review, common approaches as well as recent advances in the construction of hypoxia-sensitive CAR-T cells were discussed and summarized, which has guiding significance for enhancing the safety of CAR-T cell therapy and promoting the application of CAR-T cell in solid tumors.

Key words: Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, Hypoxia-sensitive, Tumor microenvironment, Solid tumor

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